Sexting Scandal Prompts High School Football Team to Forfeit a Game

High school officials at Cañon City High School in Cañon City, Colorado chose to forfeit an upcoming football game after discovering that several players on the team were involved with a sexting scandal.

"It has come to the attention of the Cañon City School District that a number of our students have engaged in behavior where they take and pass along pictures of themselves that expose private parts of their bodies or their undergarments," school officials wrote in a statement on Facebook.

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Taking and sending or keeping nude photos of yourself (if you're underage) or another underage person is considered child pornography, which is a felony. The Cañon City Police Department is now investigating the incident to determine if any of the nude photos were coerced, or if any adults were involved.

Superintendent George Welsh told KOAA 5 that students were taking and sending the nude photos like trading cards in a contest to see who could collect the most.

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Due to concerns over the football team's representation of Cañon City community's values, school officials chose to forfeit the upcoming game against Discovery Canyon High School.

"Because we can't guarantee that every kid we put out on the field would be clean of this circumstance, we'd just rather not put a team out at all," the superintendent told KOAA 5.

Many members of the Cañon City High School community are upset by the school's decision.

"We realize this decision will unfairly penalize many of our fine young men who clearly did not participate in these actions," school officials wrote in the statement. "However, we concluded it was impossible to safely field an entire team representative of the personal qualities and characteristics that truly represent the history of the Cañon City High School football program."